Dengue re-emerged in capital

Staff Reporter :
Mosquito-borne disease dengue has re-emerged in the capital Dhaka, with the onset of the monsoon.
In the first 15 days of this month, 521 people were infected with dengue. And from last January to July 15 (Friday), 1,610 people were infected with dengue in the country.
Of the 1,610 dengue cases this year, 1,402 are in Dhaka city. Apart from this, 206 people have been infected with dengue in different districts of the country.
After Dhaka, Chittagong division has the highest number of dengue patients. So far 143 people have been infected with dengue in this division.
Apart from Dhaka metropolis, only four people have been infected with dengue in Dhaka division. Among them, one person has been infected with dengue in Gazipur, Kishoreganj, Manikganj and Munshiganj each.
No one has had dengue in the Sylhet division so far this year, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Dengue patients have been on the rise since last May. In May, 183 people were infected with dengue. In June, it increased to 638 people, according to the latest information of Health Emergency Operation Center and Control Room, the DGHS.
In the last 24 hours, there were 30 new dengue patients in Dhaka and one outside Dhaka. Among the new

 dengue patients, 20 have been admitted to government and 11 to private hospitals. The highest number of new dengue patients in Dhaka city has been admitted to Mugda Medical College Hospital.
A new dengue patient has been admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital outside Dhaka.
This year, 1,423 people recovered from dengue. There are still 18 people admitted to the hospital. And so far this year, one person has died of dengue. He is a resident of Dhaka metropolis, according to the Health Emergency Operation Center and Control Room.
Capital turns dengue hotspot
Residents of the capital have been suffering from dengue for more than two decades as the city has become a hotspot of this disease in the country.
In the wake of the dengue outbreak, the authorities of Dhaka North City Corporation recently introduced a fleet of drones to monitor the city for potential breeding sites of disease-spreading mosquitoes in an effort to control the dengue outbreak.
These drones have began search operation for containers with standing water, where where Aedes mosquitoes could breed.
“Fresh rainwater is logged on the rooftops during monsoon and becomes an ideal breeding place for the Aedes mosquitoes. That’s why we opted for drone flying to identify the Aedes breeding grounds in the city,” Brigadier General Mohammad Zobaidur Rahman, chief health officer of Dhaka North City Corporation, told the media.
The Dhaka North City Corporation governs about 80 percent of the capital’s 22 million people.
Experts, however, observed that hot, humid and crowded Dhaka city struggles with swarms of mosquitoes due to its climate and unplanned urbanisation.
The breeding of mosquitoes becomes a major health concern during the monsoon season between June and September, when thousands of Dhaka residents contract dengue, a viral and potentially deadly disease transmitted to humans by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, which breed in freshwater pools and rain drains.
The disease used to be rare in Bangladesh in the 1960s, but for the past two decades its incidence has increased dramatically and in 2019 – the worst dengue outbreak year in the country’s history – more than 100,000 cases were reported across the country, mainly in capital Dhaka.